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No Steel Cages Here
by Mike Chen on 02/05/09 at 12:26 PM ET
Comments (7)
Kudos to NHLPA head honcho Paul Kelly for acknowledging what a lot of hockey fans were already thinking—that the “staged fights” between each team’s respective goons are getting to the point of silliness and are pretty unnecessary for the game. Whatever your opinion is on fighting, be it pro or con, I think that we can all agree that at least this level of scripted fisticuffs should go the way of the dodo—or at least banished to the wrestling ring. (Donald Brashear vs. Kurt Angle? That might be fun to watch.)
How predictable has it all become? At a recent Sharks/Ducks game, I posted a gameday poll at Battle of California asking readers to guess when Jody Shelley and George Parros would drop the gloves. Not surprisingly, the majority of readers picked the right time range (second half of the first period).
The question, of course, then becomes how do you regulate something like this? There’s a big difference between said Shelley/Parros fight and Vincent Lecavalier trying to stick up for his goalie against the Islanders. I know that, you know that, and everyone watching knows that. But on-ice officiating? How can they create rules that regulate it so that the nonsense fighting is filtered out?
Do you base it on a guy’s reputation? If that’s the case, then it’d be up to the refs to jump in and whistle it dead before things get too far. The fighters know what they’re doing, and there’s a difference between when a guy is so worked up that it takes his own teammates to hold him back and when two goons tell each other “Good scrap” after a fight. Fights that occur out of passion will generally be much more difficult to blow dead compared to when it’s just two goons doing what they think they should be doing. If it really is just a staged fight, I don’t think you’ll get too many complaints from anyone on the ice.
Another way to approach it on the ice is to heighten the penalty of the whole thing. Would the league go as far as to insert an additional two-minute delay of game penalty for fights that are deemed to be outside of the game’s flow? I don’t think that’d be too difficult to implement because it wouldn’t affect the on-ice play that much; rather, you’d just have goons sitting for seven minutes instead of five. Under this scenario, you let them go at it and they’re simply removed from the game for a little longer. I’m not sure how much of a deterrent that would be as these guys barely top ten minutes a night in ice time.
Perhaps the most effective way to address this is by attacking their paycheck. Simply let all the fighters in the league know that their fights will be reviewed by the league. If something seems as scripted and predictable as a WWE match (especially if the bring out the steel chairs or breakable tables), then both combatants get fined. Remember, these guys aren’t pulling in the $7 million paychecks; often times, they’re much closer to the league minimum. So if that’s the case, hitting their wallet probably hurts more than a punch to the gut.
I’m not saying I want to ban fighting totally—that’s a debate for another time, and it’s a much more complicated one. But the usefulness of Goon A fighting Goon B just for the sake of it has is long past its prime. Let’s keep the game focused on the game and leave sideshow stuff to failed pay-per-view events.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Fighting, Paul+Kelly,
Comments
It’s not the place of some sports blogger to decide who should be playing or not or deciding who is qualified to play in the league. I just wish the anti fight folks such as yourself would simply turn away or maybe close your eyes, instead of wanting to take something out of the game that a lot of people like, do you see the crowds when Shelley and Parros fight? not many people there are saying. “Oh my, I wish they’d stop this”
And if you really think that those “staged fights” are for no reason or purpose, you simply don’t understand the role of fighting in the game. And the sensible thing to do when you don’t understand something, is to learn about it, not voice ignorant, uneducated opinions.
Posted by IslesFan on 02/05/09 at 01:16 PM ET
Am I supposed to feel guilty now because I look forward to Parros-Shelley fights? I’m not sure why there’s a movement to get these out of the game—I quite enjoy them.
If owners thought these fights were costing them fans, they would go away on their own. If coaches thought these fights were costing them wins, they would go away on their own. Apparently, though, these self-regulating motivations aren’t enough?
Hopefully people in charge really think through the repercussions here. If all we’ll be left with is Crosby fights, I’ll be pissed.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Anaheim, CA on 02/05/09 at 01:30 PM ET
And if you really think that those “staged fights” are for no reason or purpose, you simply don’t understand the role of fighting in the game. And the sensible thing to do when you don’t understand something, is to learn about it, not voice ignorant, uneducated opinions.
Ok, so you honestly believe that Goon A and Goon B in a predictable fight is a tactical decision? If those types of fight were so critical to shifting the momentum of the game or blowing off steam or making a statement about protecting your team, why don’t we see them more—and why don’t we see them in the playoffs? Yes, fighting can be a tactical thing but that type of fighting isn’t and the playoffs prove it. You’ll almost never see goons squaring off in the playoffs; heck, you won’t see a lot of goons dressed during the playoffs. Look at the on-ice roster of Cup-winning teams over the past decade and count the number of enforcers that got regular shifts during critical games.
While I’ll acknowledge that the hometown crowd gets excited about a fight (pro-fighting argument 1), I think you’d be surprised how many fans and pundits are beginning to see that fights between Goon A and Goon B are unnecessary. This isn’t Lecavalier fighting Iginla during a heated moment of the Cup final and it’s not a team captain trying to fire up his team. These are fights that probably wouldn’t occur if one of Goon A or Goon B were scratched. During that Sharks/Ducks game, if Shelley was scratched, would Parros have fought Ryane Clowe or Rob Blake? If you watch the flow of most games, you’d know the answer is usually no.
There’s a big difference between challenging a guy who’s been chirping/running guys and goons squaring off. Does that make me some squeamish anti-fighting guy? In your eyes, I guess so; to me, I’m just asking for some authenticity when guys square off rather than them doing so just for the sake of doing it.
Posted by Mike Chen on 02/05/09 at 01:55 PM ET
Mike is entirely correct in noting that in the greater majority of fights there is little to be tactically gained, and points out the obvious correllary of the absence of fights in the postseason as being clearly supportive of that conclusion.
The problem is, when it comes to fighting, ‘impact on the score’ isn’t exactly the point. The point is, pretty much everyone likes it. Everyone stands up, everyone goes nuts, everyone cheers.
The NHL is having a hard enough time drawing fans and generating interest without yanking one of the three or four most exciting things in its sport off the table.
Sadly (or not, depending on one’s perspective), someone is going to have to bleed out, have a graphic seizure and just plain die right there out on the ice after a fight during a televised NHL game before any serious momentum is going to gather with regards to moderation. It took Jiri Fischer almost dying to get teams serious about those ‘vague’ heart conditions, and it will take something similar to that happening due to a NHL fight before anything is done.
Hopefully it never happens and we don’t have to worry about it. Then again…
Posted by HockeyinHD on 02/05/09 at 02:12 PM ET
“It’s not the place of some sports blog commenter to decide who should be playing or not or deciding who is qualified to play in the league. I just wish the fight folks such as yourself would simply turn away or maybe close your eyes, instead of wanting to take something out of the game that a lot of people like, do you see the crowds when Datsyuk dekes a goalie out of his pants? not many people there are saying. “Oh my, I wish they’d stop this”
And if you really think that those “skilled players” are for no reason or purpose, you simply don’t understand the role of skill in the game. And the sensible thing to do when you don’t understand something, is to learn about it, not voice ignorant, uneducated opinions.”
Yes, it’s pithy and makes many assumptions…but doesn’t your original comment?
I mean, you assume that Mike flat-out doesn’t understand the “role” of fighting just because he wants goon fights cut down?
Sounds like someone doesn’t know what the role of fighting started out as.
Posted by Shane from Saskatoon on 02/05/09 at 05:00 PM ET
Shane, I never said anything negative about a Datsyuk type player or any skilled player. I understand and appreciate the skilled players and what they bring to the game, and I love seeing the likes of Datsyuk and Ovechkin and Crosby put on a show. However I think its also wrong to criticize the Shelleys, Brashears, Boogaards of the NHL, because they do serve a purpose. Mike doesn’t understand what that purpose is, so he sees no point in them, that’s fine. Mike might understand parts of it, but his comments that fights between guys like Shelley and Parros serve no purpose shows me that he doesn’t fullyunderstand that aspect of the game. And like most people who share that opinion, he’s probably not interested in attempting to understand it.
Isn’t it funny considering all the great hockey minds that exist in the management level of the game, that guys like Boogaard and Godard and Shelley have jobs. I guess maybe you know something that they don’t.
Posted by IslesFan on 02/05/09 at 09:25 PM ET
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Limit the number of fighting majors any individual player can have in a season to a certain number, and do the same thing on the team level. Once a player hits their Fighting Major limit, they are banned for a number of games equal to their total fighting majors each time they have one from then on. Assuming the limit is 5 fighting majors per player then 6 games when they have their 6th fight, for instance. Once a team hits their fighting number, they are fined per fight from then on.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 02/05/09 at 12:44 PM ET